'Bittersweet day' for Bullen

Caretaker boss Lee Bullen admitted it was a “bittersweet day” after Sheffield Wednesday won 3-0 at Nottingham Forest.

Head coach Carlos Carvalhal left Wednesday by mutual consent on Christmas Eve after a dismal run of form, but the players he left behind showed their qualities at the City Ground.

The Owls beat Forest for a seventh consecutive time in the Championship, with Adam Reach scoring from long range in the fifth minute, before a Jordan Rhodes penalty in first-half injury time and a solo strike from Lucas Joao midway through the second half made certain of the victory.

Bullen was delighted with a “fabulous” win but questioned why Wednesday had not performed to this level previously.

“It was a bittersweet day, because ultimately a man has lost his job a couple of days ago and he is a really good man and a really good coach,” said Bullen.

“Sometimes the players have to take a little bit of responsibility for that. They have done - they have put their hands up and admitted that we have not played to the standards that we can.

“That is the saddest thing about modern football - sometimes you get that bounce after a change. I am gutted personally for the man, because he is a good friend of mine. I am sure he will bounce back into football.

“But how many times do you see that kind of reaction? More often than not people say, ‘How the heck have they produced that?’, when they have not seen that over the past five or six weeks.

“It was a fabulous win for us. Possession-wise, they had twice as much of the ball as us. But we have to be really pleased with that performance.”

18:28

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Full time scores...

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'I don't know what to say really...'

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Here's Warburton's verdict...

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'Strange as it may seem the Forest defence didn’t have too bad a day'

Joe Worrall makes a tackle (Image: Mark Fear)

Nottingham Forest were well beaten by Sheffield Wednesday in their Boxing Day clash at the City Ground, losing 3-0.